Grocery store exhibition leads to big jump for Dusty Jonas

SAN ANTONIO — Maybe high jumper Dusty Jonas should try warming up in the produce aisle at the grocery store more often.

After participating in a unique exhibition last week in Des Moines, Iowa, he uncorked one of the best efforts of his career at the Drake Relays, tying him for the second best jump in the world this season.

A few days before the start of the meet, Jonas showed up with a few of the top-rated jumpers in the world at a local Hy-Vee grocery store.

All to have some fun and help the meet sponsor sell some tickets.

“For people to be that close to us and see us jumping (the bar) over our head, I thought that was awesome,” Jonas said. “It went really well for me. I just drove over there and jumped. I cleared seven feet, two and a half (inches) off five steps.”

Later in the week, Jonas and Co. staged one of the best competitions in U.S. history at Drake Stadium.

Canadian Derek Drouin won it with an epic leap of 7-10 and 1/2.

With the effort, the former Indiana University standout joined retired high jump star Charles Austin of San Marcos in an elite group of only ten men who have ever cleared that height.

Erik Kynard and Jonas finished second and third, respectively, with both clearing 7-8 and 1/2. The three of them now own the top three jumps in the world this year.

“The crazy thing about it, everyone else had a little bit different situation going into it, but it was our first meet of the year,” Jonas said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “I had been battling through a little bit of an injury just this last month. All I’ve really done is just weight training and just kind of jogging and doing drills, so I didn’t know what to expect.”

For Jonas, 28, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., it was a breakthrough moment in what he hopes will be his road back to the Summer Olympic Games.

The 2008 Olympian cleared 7-1 on his first attempt, and then he followed with jumps of 7-3, 7-4 and 1/2, 7-6, 7-7 and 1/4 and then 7-8 and 1/2 — a quarter inch shy of his personal record.

He finally missed on “three pretty good attempts” at 7-9 and 3/4.

Now working as a coach at Nebraska, his alma mater, Jonas said it’s satisfying to know that he has finally started to hit the heights that carried him to the Olympics in Beijing six years ago.

In 2012, he had to sit out the Olympic year with after suffering a ruptured Achilles.

But he bounced back strong last season, making the U.S. world championship team.

This year, he has worked through a strange hip ailment that started bothering him last summer. As a result, Jonas adjusted his approach, shortening it by two steps.

The result is a more controlled run-up to the bar.

Also, Jonas said he has fixed some other mechanical issues.

“ This year … I’ve been really, really trying to work on fixing what needs to be fixed (in technique). It’s kind of a learning curve. I mean, you’re not going to fix six years of bad habits,” he said. “Yeah, I’m finally getting it together, and it finally came together at the right time.

“To be honest, it feels amazing.”

Hey, maybe he’ll need to scope out a grocery store in Sacramento before the USA Championships this June, just to soak in some of the karma.

Jonas wouldn’t mind.

“I think this weekend was a big step in the right direction for our sport,” he said. “(Meet director) Brian (Brown) is innovative. He likes to think outside the box to get the viewing public interested and to understand the sport. It’s important for the younger generation to see it, something besides basketball or football.